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PNS Daily Newscast - May 24, 2019

President Trump's reported to be ready to sign disaster relief bill without money for border security. Also on the Friday rundown: House bills would give millions a path to citizenship; and remembering California’s second-deadliest disaster.

Nearly 98 percent of Iowa's 33 million acres are privately owned, meaning it's up to farmers, ranchers and other landowners to voluntarily participate in conservation programs.

Iowa farmers have received $5 billion in federal conservation funds since 1995, and Joe Wilkinson, president of the Iowa Wildlife Federation, says everyone benefits.

"You know, any incentives we can get to get landowners to put more land into wildlife habitat, into any sort of conservation programs, is important to us, because we don't have the public acres that other states do," he states.

The farm bill proposed by the House would cut nearly $800 million over 10 years, whereas funding is consistent in the Senate bill. The current farm bill expires Sept. 30.

Aviva Glaser, director of agriculture policy with the National Wildlife Federation, says these types of conservation programs help keep farms and ranches in private hands, while protecting natural resources for future generations.

She notes that in 2016, Iowa's $372 million share was one of the nation's largest.

"Going to help these farmers and ranchers do practices on their lands to help improve water quality, help improve wildlife habitat, build soil health," she explains.

The large cuts to conservation funding in the previous farm bill meant a reduction of easements.

Wilkinson says farmers and ranchers who focus on conservation are helping protect species like monarch butterflies and pheasants.

"It has helped our pheasant population and that is a big economic value in Iowa, because pheasant hunting, small town Iowa is a big deal in the fall,” he points out. “So, it's important, more than just the environmental/conservation side of it, too – there's a rural economic value to it."

The National Wildlife Federation also wants Congress to include a national Sodsaver provision in the farm bill to protect what's left of America's grasslands, which are down to 5 percent of their original acreage.